The state's Republican Party, under chairman Peter Torkildsen and executive director Robert Willington, is way into this Internet thing, and has just re-launched its web site (which desperately needed the overhaul). It's still pretty template/boilerplate to me, but maybe I just look at way too many candidate web sites.

The GOP side of the CNN/WMUR New Hampshire poll is out, and -- Yipes! -- Romney's once-formidable lead is gone. Mitt stands at 25%, Giuliani 24%, McCain 18%, Thompson 13%. Romney led by 14 points the last time CNN/WMUR did this poll, in July. Back then, Romney led Giuliani 34 to 20, with Thompson at 13 and McCain at 12.

1. Maureen stands alone. Neither Rosie Hanlon nor Althea Garrison seem to have made it past the prelims, leaving exactly zero women on the final ballot for the 13 Boston City Council seats, other than council President Maureen Feeney.

2. Eastie: right on the map, right on the ideological spectrum! Or at least, they're grumpy toward liberals -- and that means you too, Mayor Menino.

The Democrats running for President have a debate at Dartmouth tomorrow night, so while they're in the area they'll be swooping around and about. Obama will be in Peterborough tomorrow morning; Dodd will be in West Lebanon tomorrow afternoon; and Edwards will hit Conway, Berlin, Littleton and Claremont, and do a MTV/MySpace forum at UNH, on Thursday/Friday.

A search of the Boston Globe archives for Carlos Henriquez reveals that the paper is, in fact, aware that there's a preliminary election for City Council in Roxbury -- although poor Carlos hasn't rated a mention since May 1. The Herald has not run a single news story about that race, but Alan Lupo did write about him in his column back in April.

The Supreme Judicial Court just issued its ruling on a much-anticipated appeal involving Joseph Cousin, the man alleged to have murdered 10-year-old Trina Persad in 2002. The 2004 trial ended in a mistrial, when prosecutors contended that several jurors had lied about their criminal histories. Cousin and his attorney, Willie Davis, argued that the DA's office had acted improperly, and had deliberately attempted to force a mistrial -- they brought the criminal-history evidence to the judge during deliberations, after the jury had acquitted Cousin's co-defendant.

I have believed all year that Newt Gingrich has been, in effect, running for President this whole time, and has merely been plotting out his best timing for entry while subtly sabotaging the other candidates. Over the past several days, he has been suggesting to reporters that he will start taking "pledges" in October, and if he gets $30 million pledged by early November, he'll run.

In this week's Phoenix, out tomorrow, I write about politics encroaching on Massachusetts's 9/11 commemoration -- and suggest that it's the inevitable result of Jim Ogonowski's candidacy for Congress. Read it online now:

Romney has launched a radio ad in Iowa, where a judge recently gave the go-ahead to same-sex marriage, a ruling now on appeal. In the ad, Romney says:

"The court ruling in Iowa is just another example of an activist judge trying to
find things in the Constitution that aren't there. As Republicans, we must
oppose discrimination and defend traditional marriage: one man, one woman."

Yet another attempt at a GOP Presidential debate is toast, as none of the major candidates have agreed to participate in a September 27 event, hosted by Tavis Smiley, at Morgan State University in Baltimore. A Dartmouth/NECN debate for later this month has aparently been scrapped. A Univision debate originally scheduled for this weekend has been "indefinitely postponed" because only McCain agreed to show.

You might not be aware, but Governor Deval Patrick has become a
right-wing punching bag over the past 24 hours or so, for saying in his 9/11 speech that the attacks were the result, in part, of "a failure of human understanding."

As I reconstruct events: yesterday at around 3:30pm, the Boston Globe
put a brief (uncritical) article on Boston.